Design by Robert Frost

The poem Design by Robert Frost has interesting images in his poem. One imagery has specifically pointed out the white, fat, dimpled spider carrying a white moth on its mouth. The picture of the spider carries out through the whole poem, but Frost brings it up by questioning why the spider had climbed up so high with the moth. Though it's not seen very clearly, small pictures of death are described after each description of the spider and the moth.

Frost has given a description of the spider, which seems to contain a contradictory image. The image of color "white" with the meaning of pureness and beauty is put side by side with the word "fat", which gives the image of greed. This could be seen as how the society was in Frost's daily life. For instance, the rich people could have been taking away the poor's goods, such as money by taxing the poor a lot, leaving them lifeless and hopeless. Frost even questions what is the purpose of "darkness to appall" even if the target "[is] a thing so small." It was the death that was brought upon the weak.

The death that Frost kind of alludes can be seen in different way. For instance, one can see why the spider obviously has captured the moth but he got the moth and turned it into an innocent thing which its "dead wings [were] carried like a paper kite" by the spider. Just like a paper kite stuck between the tree branches, the moth was helpless from its predator. This tells how one cannot be so free or freedom itself will be caught by a strong force, such as death. Frost also described how the spider was holding the moth "like a white piece of rigid satin cloth." Just like how easily the spider held the moth in its mouth, one's life can end like picking up a piece of cloth.